Founders:

The National College of Midwifery was founded in 1989 by the New Mexico Midwives Association and the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center under the name The New Mexico College of Midwifery. Its purpose is to preserve and improve the apprenticeship route for midwifery education.

The College is a not-for-profit educational corporation governed by a Board of Directors and advised by the Faculty Advisory Board, consisting primarily of licensed and student midwives in New Mexico. The College is licensed as a Postsecondary Institution by the: see bottom of page. The College is accredited by: see bottom of page

The College is presently run by founding president Elizabeth Gilmore, LM who is also the founder of the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center (a nationally accredited freestanding birth center). Elizabeth Gilmore is the Chair of the New Mexico Midwives Association Education Committee.

The Mission of the National College of Midwifery is to provide aspiring direct-entry midwives with access to superlative clinical and didactic education culminating in an accredited degree emphasizing maternal and infant risk-reduction. The degree programs of the National College of Midwifery are implemented in diverse learning environments chosen by the student and the preceptor, from individual and group apprenticeships to classroom settings, allowing for multiple approaches to learning while requiring a high degree of initiative and discipline from of the student.

Midwifery begins as a calling. The National College of Midwifery recognizes that the avocation of midwifery is acquired intellectually and kinesthetically by highly motivated and self-selected individuals. Midwifery students hold a deep respect for, and desire to protect and enhance, the natural process of birth. They also espouse a passionate commitment to the reduction of maternal and infant risk for entire communities, countries, and the world.

Essential to midwifery education is the partnership between the student and an experienced midwife who agrees to be her preceptor. Through the apprenticeship, the preceptor communicates her style and expertise, her compassion and caring for her clients, her ethics and standards of practice to her student. The student must distill and incorporate those elements of style and emphasis that suit her, while diligently and continually seeking to acquire academic knowledge and clinical expertise.

As an educational institution, the College strives to nurture fruitful apprenticeships between students and preceptors by providing them the information, resources, mentorship, and support they require to achieve a rewarding working relationship. The apprenticeship route of midwifery education has proven in New Mexico to be effective, low cost and safe, as reflected in the decade of outcome statistics published by the New Mexico Department of Health from 1980 to 1990. State statistics are now submitted to the Midwives Alliance of North America for tabulation.

•  To provide a mechanism for students to “dual-enroll” in a midwifery apprenticeship, in a midwifery education program or in a midwifery school, while simultaneously enrolling in the College to achieve a degree in midwifery. Group size may vary from a one-on-one interaction to a group interaction of any size

•  To provide a degree-granting, educational route for the training of midwives in their community setting in order to contain costs

•  To stimulate, encourage and reward research by midwifery practitioners

•  To promote community involvement and keep the student's family structure intact

•  To provide a core curriculum for each of the degrees offered

•  To provide an Associate of Science in Midwifery, a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery, a Master of Science in Midwifery, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Midwifery

•  To provide courses and guidance to professional and state entities to fill expressed needs for specific courses or subject areas

•  To provide accessible midwifery training to student midwives in any location and at any level of training under the guidance of an approved preceptor(s)

•  To allow the student to choose her/his own preceptor(s) according to a mutually acceptable agreement based on College guidelines

•  To provide a faculty board made up of volunteers in the field of midwifery education and related disciplines for reviewing proposals from preceptor/apprentice dyads, for meeting curriculum requirements and for reviewing proposed research projects

•  To address the following concerns about midwifery apprenticeship nationally:

•  Consistency from preceptorship to preceptorship in academic content

•  Guidance for the preceptor and the student through the materials to be covered

•  Credibility for the academic program

Definition of Midwifery Apprenticeship:

Midwifery Apprenticeship refers to learning midwifery from a fully licensed midwife (or other obstetrical practitioner approved in her/his jurisdiction) who guides the student through academic and clinical participation in the preceptor's practice setting at a mutually agreed upon pace. The preceptor supervises the student's development of academic and clinical skills considered, by the national standards of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) and the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), to be the scope of midwifery care. The student is primarily responsible for meeting the academic requirements, while the preceptor evaluates academic progress, offering or insuring that the student obtains any special classes in areas of specific importance or difficulty as agreed upon by student and preceptor.

The National College of Midwifery is accreditated with the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council: 20 East Cherry Avenue, Flagstaff, AZ 86001-4607. Tel # (+1) 928-214-0997.

The National College of Midwifery is licensed as a Postsecondary Institution by the New Mexico Commission on higer Education, 5301 Central NE, Suite 1500, Albuquerque NM 87108. Tel# 505-841-6611.